GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Preciousville rallied to the
front through the far turn and wore down a stubbon
Rachele R's Queen to capture Saturday's $15,600 Pepsi
Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday at Fonner
Park.
Preciousville, ridden by Luis Ranilla for trainer Dan Coughlin, returned $3 as the 1-2 favorite in the field of six. She was a $12,500 claim off her last start, a winning effort going a mile at Fair Grounds in February for owner Craig Wulf.
White Spar showed he is not just a dirt horse and not just a sprinter as the 3-year-old gelding captured Saturday's $45,000 Arizona Stallion Stakes at Turf Paradise.
Owned by Dennis Weir and trained by Kevin Lewis, White Spar was sent off the 1-2 favorite going about 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf. He prompted the early pace of Bjorklund to the backstretch, and then he and Stormy Highland, the second choice, went head and head from there to the wire.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Eight Belles will head to the Kentucky Oaks riding a four-race win streak and as the early favorite for the race after she dug in for a three-quarter-length victory over Alina in the Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park on Sunday. It was another half-length back in third to Pure Clan.
The Fantasy continued the 35th annual Racing Festival of the South, when at least one stakes a day is being run over the final six dates of the Oaklawn meet. The season closes Saturday with the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. Kiaran McLaughlin didn't even need to be at Keeneland to enjoy a sensational weekend there. One day after the trainer was represented by the victorious Little Belle in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, the stable knocked out another stakes Sunday when Keep Laughing gamely held off Hatta Fort in the $110,300 Lafayette Stakes.
Scrappy Roo's affinity for the Sam Houston Race Park turf course reached a pinnacle Saturday night, when he won his fifth straight race in the Grade 3, $168,500 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf. Scrappy Roo won by a head over Going Ballistic. It was another neck back in third to Eighteenthofmarch.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Tiago held his ground along the inside for a head win over Heatseeker in the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday, and with the win gave his owners, Jerry and Ann Moss, his trainer, John Shirreffs, and his rider, Mike Smith, a sweep of the two richest races for older horses at Oaklawn Park. An hour earlier, the connections won the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap with Zenyatta.
"One of these races can make your year," said Jerry Moss. "To win both is quite
amazing."
After watching her Presious Passion run off to a long lead and then plummet through the field during the final quarter-mile of last months 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida Handicap, the last thing trainer Mary Hartmann wanted to see was Presious Passion open an even longer advantage when stretching out to 1 1/2 miles in Saturdays $150,000 Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - War Pass, last year's juvenile champion and a leading contender for the Kentucky Derby, suffered a cut on his chin on the flight from south Florida to New York, but it will not impact his starting status for Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
According to trainer Nick Zito, the landing of a Tex Sutton flight Thursday afternoon at Farmingdale Airport on Long Island was a bit bumpy and War Pass hit his head on a bar where he was standing, causing a small hole in his chin from where he was bleeding.
SAN MATEO, Calif. Bonfante set a course record with a 56.28-second clocking for five furlongs as he won his third straight California Turf Sprint at Bay Meadows on Saturday.
The race was roughly run early as Vaderator drifted in at the start, bumping Tribesman to start a chain reaction that also included Zoning In, who got squeezed back after he bumped with Midnight Cabinet.
Tribesman led by a head down the backstretch and began to increase his margin on the turn through fractions of 21.44 and 44.35 seconds and led by two lengths in the lane.